This invention relates to an automatic weight selector for pin selected exercise equipment and more particularly to an arrangement for use with such equipment to automatically change the selected weight after a predetermined period of time.
One of the most dramatic changes in body building has occurred during the past forty years with the development of sophisticated exercise equipment to replace the barbell as the means to exercise the torso. Among the many drawbacks of the barbell is its inability to provide variable resistance, its lack of adaptability to provide adequate rotary resistance around the axis of a joint, and inability to provide direct resistance to specific muscles.
Modern exercise machines have overcome successfully these drawbacks of the barbell and offer to the trainee a high degree of flexibility in the application of forces which can be precisely controlled and recorded. In one typical type of exercise machine now on the market, the resistive force to be applied is selected from a stack of weights utilizing a pin which is moved, so-called pin selected exercise equipment. The trainee inserts a pin for the number of weights to be lifted in applying the resistive force to his muscles. The machine itself involves a variety of devices to apply resistive forces to virtually any muscle in the anatomy of the trainee, each with its own set of pin selected weights.
It is known that to obtain maximum benefit from any exercise program, it is necessary to exert maximum force against a fixed resistance for isotonic contraction of muscles until the muscles begin to tire. It has come to be understood that it is the intensity of training rather than the total amount of training which will result in maximum size and strength of muscles. For certain muscles intensity of training can be increased beyond that obtained by merely exerting the maximum force against a fixed resistance by utilizing a procedure known as breakdown training.
In breakdown training, the trainee works to exhaustion with a given weight and then quickly reduces the resistance and works to failure again.
At present, a trainee utilizing breakdown training requires either the assistance of a second person to move the pin in a pin selected weight system or he has to stop exercising to make the change himself, in many cases, having to step off the equipment. This requirement tends to discourage the use of breakdown training.